Family Home Starter Kit

A family home has more of everything — more rooms, more lights, more gadgets and a much bigger heating bill. That's exactly why a joined-up approach pays off. Instead of one clever device, you want three categories working together: heating you control room-by-room, plugs that end standby waste, and lighting that's never left on in an empty playroom.

Heating is the big lever, so it's where most of the money is — but plugs and lighting are the cheap, fast wins that start saving the day they arrive.

• A smart thermostat — turns the heating down automatically when the house is empty or everyone's in bed. This is the single biggest saver.
• Smart radiator valves — stop heating rooms nobody's using (spare room, dining room) while keeping the living areas warm.
• Smart plugs — kill standby on the TV wall, games consoles and kitchen worktop appliances.
• Smart lighting — schedule and dim the busiest rooms; no more landing and hallway lights burning all evening.
• An energy monitor — shows live usage so the whole family can see the difference and spot what's draining power.

Real savings depend on your home and habits, but here's a realistic breakdown for a typical 3-bed semi at around 34p/kWh electricity and current gas prices:

1. 1

   Smart plugs & lighting first

   Plug in, screw in, connect to Wi-Fi and set schedules. No tools — a great job to do with the kids in an afternoon.
2. 2

   Radiator valves next

   They screw onto the existing radiator valve by hand in place of the old dial. No draining the system, no plumber.
3. 3

   Smart thermostat last

   This replaces your existing thermostat. Many are DIY-friendly, but if it wires into the boiler, book a qualified heating engineer — it's the one job worth doing properly.
4. 4

   Add the energy monitor

   Clip it on (or plug it in per the model) and use it as the family scoreboard for the first month.

• Choose smart plugs with shuttered sockets and keep them behind furniture or above little hands where you can.
• Never run heaters, hair straighteners or anything high-heat on a smart plug unless it's specifically rated for it — a schedule could switch a heater on in an empty room.
• Use the app's scheduling instead of leaving trailing extension leads and chargers within reach.
• Set night-time lighting scenes to a warm, low glow for kids' rooms — gentler and cheaper than a full-brightness landing light left on.

A full starter kit is a bigger upfront spend than a single plug — but for a family home it's an investment that keeps paying. Most families see the whole kit pay for itself within one to three years, then bank £200–£400 every year after that, plus a warmer, more controllable home in the meantime.

Not ready for everything at once? Start with the thermostat and a couple of plugs — the two biggest savers — and add valves and lighting as the savings roll in.

• Wattly Home Saver BundleWhole-home energy control for families — smart thermostat, plugs and bulbs that pay for themselves in under a year.£89.99View →
• Nimbus Smart ThermostatLearns your routine and stops heating an empty home — the single biggest saving in most households.£129.99View →
• ThermaValve Smart Radiator ValveHeat only the rooms you use. Screws onto your radiator in minutes — no plumber, no draining.£39.99View →
• Pulse Energy MonitorSee exactly what your home is spending in real time — the first step to knowing where to save.£49.99View →